BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley took a victory lap around the court at Legacy Arena on Sunday afternoon, high-fiving fans and members of the school’s pep band — and even autographing the rear end of a baby’s pants — with a fifth straight Final Four berth in hand for her Gamecocks.
While they’re headed to a familiar place as March Madness gives way to the basketball business of early April, this time they had to grind out a close win to get there.
With points at a premium, South Carolina junior forward Chloe Kitts scored a team-high 14 — half of those came at the foul line — and the Gamecocks continued the hunt for their third NCAA Division I tournament title in four years and fourth overall by beating Duke 54-50 in the Elite Eight. South Carolina, which was the No. 1 seed in Region 2, improved to 34-3 while ending second-seeded Duke’s season at 29-8.
“It is not going to look pretty. It’s not. There’s stretches in each game that does not look pretty,” said Staley, whose 17th season already includes a Southeastern Conference regular-season championship shared with Texas and a league tournament title earned by beating the Longhorns in the final. “Some of it’s not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision how we practice. But you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that’s presented in front of you. We’ll do that.
“If we’re not scoring a lot of points, we’ll up our defense.”
The Gamecocks did just that, and now they’re two wins away from becoming the first team to repeat as national champions since the University of Connecticut won four straight from 2013-16 to become the all-time leader in NCAA D-I women’s basketball with 11 overall. This year’s Final Four is in Tampa, Florida, with the national semifinals Friday night.
South Carolina will play the winner of the Region 3 final. Top-seeded Texas and second-seeded TCU — like the Gamecocks, each is 34-3 — play that matchup Monday night in Birmingham.
Duke, which entered Sunday on a nine-game winning streak that included winning the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, was trying to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 2006, when the Blue Devils reached the title game but lost to Maryland in overtime.
South Carolina, which came into Sunday averaging 80.5 points per game, was stymied for most of the matchup by Duke’s stingy defense in the first-ever postseason meeting between the programs. However, this was their second meeting this season, with South Carolina beating Duke 80-71 when the Blue Devils visited Columbia on Dec. 5 as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge.
“I thought they forced us into taking some bad shots that almost ended our season, really, especially in the first half,” Staley said.
Senior forward Sania Feagin was the only other South Carolina player in double figures, scoring 12 points, and she held or shared team highs with her eight rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
The game was tied at 46 when Feagin hit a jumper to put the Gamecocks ahead with 4:21 left. Kitts, who was named the region’s most outstanding player, added two free throws 42 seconds later to make it 50-46.
Toby Fournier, who led Duke with 18 points, scored with 3:21 left to get her team within two. The Blue Devils trailed 52-50 with 29.8 seconds left when South Carolina’s Bree Hall was called for an offensive foul on an inbound play, giving Duke a chance to tie or take the lead.
The Blue Devils worked the clocked down before Ashlon Jackson airballed a 3-pointer from the wing with seven seconds left. Hall got the rebound, and South Carolina called a timeout.
“Went with the ball in Ashlon’s hands as she had been making plays for us in the fourth quarter out of the ball screen,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “She tried to make a play and just missed it.”
Kitts was fouled with 5.7 seconds left and calmly sank both free throws to seal the win, much to the delight of a majority of the 11,252 fans in attendance who traveled to Alabama. Kitts shot 3-for-8 from the floor, making her only 3-point attempt, and was 7-for-10 at the foul line.
“I was just taking a deep breath,” Kitts said of her thought process as she stepped to the line. “I told myself that my coach wanted me to have the ball at the end of the game because she knew I could make my free throws. And I told myself that I’m really good at basketball, and I made both of them.”
Duke turned over the ball on the ensuing inbound play, and the Gamecocks ran out the clock.
“A lot of things we asked our players to do, and they delivered in a big way,” Lawson said. “It wasn’t enough. Hold your head high; you competed. They competed as hard as you could. As a coach, that’s all you can ask.”
The Blue Devils trailed 26-22 at halftime before starting the third quarter with a 16-6 run to take their first lead since the opening minutes. Fournier’s layup with 2:27 left in the period made it 38-32, and Duke was up 42-38 heading into the fourth. South Carolina scored the first eight points of the final period and didn’t trail again, setting up a celebration of the program’s seventh Final Four trip.
As her team was cutting down the nets, Staley came across a fan who held his baby up so the coach could sign the back of the little one’s white pants.
“That was a first. My hand was shaking,” Staley said, laughing.